Not long ago, Portland State was the talk of the Big Sky Conference, a men's basketball team that prior to league play knocked off a couple Pac-12 teams, played with Duke for 30 minutes and nearly beat Butler.

Then Big Sky play started, and the magic faded.

Portland State sank to 3-6 in Big Sky play after Idaho used a late first-half run to take control Thursday night and beat the Vikings 97-88 at Lewis & Clark College.

The Vikings, once 10-3 after beating California on Dec. 21, are now 13-9 overall and tied for eighth in Big Sky play midway through the league season.

What happened?

Ever-optimistic first-year coach Barret Peery admits January was rough, in large part due to a roster in flux between injuries, sickness and suspensions. Thursday, the Vikings were missing leading scorer Deontae North due to suspension. Ten different players have started a game for PSU this season.

Contrast that with Idaho (15-7, 7-3), which has had the same starting lineup for 22 games this season.

"In February, our biggest goal is to get back to normal, get some good rotations and get our guys back in a normal routine again," Peery said. "Everybody goes through these lulls. I hope ours was in January. I've seen our team be good. I've seen our team do good things. I don't worry about our team being good."

If the Vikings are to catch fire during the second half, starting at 1 p.m. Saturday against Eastern Washington, they'll need a better defensive performance than Thursday's against Idaho. The Vandals shot nearly 62 percent from the field (35 of 57).

Brayon Blake hit 12 of 15 shots and scored 28 points, and former Jefferson star Victor Sanders had 22 points and seven assists for the Vandals.

Idaho, the Big Sky's preseason favorite, has five Oregon high school graduates on its roster, more than any other team in Division I. Among the handful of Oregonians are the Jefferson duo of Sanders and Geno West, and West Albany brothers Nate and Chad Sherwood.

Sanders is an Oregonian who found college big time outside the state. The 6-foot-5 senior is Idaho's No. 2 all-time scorer with 1,657 points, and ranks third in Big Sky scoring this season at 20 points per game.

Sanders, troubled by a knee injury shortly after graduating from Jefferson in 2013, took a long route to Idaho, making stops at a prep school, and thinking he had offers from UTEP and Washington State.

In the end, Idaho and Sanders became an ideal match. Sanders isn't angry that Oregon's four Division I schools showed little to no interest while he was at Jefferson.

"My dad always told me it's not where you go, it's what you do when you get there. I took that to heart and tried to make a statement for myself," Sanders said. "I trusted that the right school would find me, and Idaho was the only school to come to my house and talk to my family face-to-face."

Portland State, which beat Idaho 73-72 on a buzzer-beater in Moscow on Jan. 6, kept pace with the Vandals for most of the first half. But a 16-5 run during a four-minute stretch allowed Idaho to separate itself from the Vikings, and the Vandals led 48-37 at halftime.

Idaho stretched its lead to 58-41 early in the second half after Peery was called for a technical foul, arguing a no-call on a push off by Sanders. The emotional outburst almost felt like it was as much to put a charge into his team as it was outrage over a referee's call.

Asked if he took one for the team, Peery said, "Yeah, I did. We needed to change the momentum and make sure that we gave ourselves a chance."

It worked, briefly. Portland State immediately went on an 8-0 run and closed the deficit to 58-49. But Idaho was resilient, quickly regained control of the game, and the Vikings never got closer than eight points.

Michael Mayhew hit five three-pointers and scored 20 points, while Bryce Canda had 17 to lead the Vikings.